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Aramar
Disclaimer & Description Aramar is an RPG setting originally dreamed up back in 1976 for Metagaming's "Melee" & "Magic", updated for "The Fantasy Trip" when that came out, a Champions fantasy variant in 1981, and finally AD&D in 1986. It was used in several fanfics, including "Grand Tour" and "A Different Art" and is presented here as a different sort of world for adventurers - compared to such places as Toril (Forgotten Realms), Oerth (Greyhawk), or RIFTS Earth. Here, there is a reason for everything. It just might be that it takes work to find the answer. And, sometimes, a little knowledge is dangerous. Aramar owes a lot to its creators. Gregg Sharp (aka Metroanime) for the most part, but gamers like David Michael Riggs, Gary R, Rex, Pat W, Morgan Wright, Sean Gallahar, and all the others who have also contributed their input or carved out legends for themselves within its confines. To all of you: may your tankards never run dry, nor the sense of wonder desert you. |
Kingdoms | Races | Geology | Magic | Technology | Rules | Ecology | Natural Hazards | Adventure Hooks | Faith
History in brief
From the speech of Chandothar of Amberlake, 212 7E, Wizcon XXIII, "Th Findings From Th Noble Historians":
"As you all well know, the fellow Greym Al'Kaar of the Delphins Kingdom of Nihon has made many strides in understanding his adopted race's history. Much of what he has discovered dovetails nicely with what we in the higher rankings of magecraft have known for quite some time.
"And that is, that most of the commonly held creation myths that each race or member group within the Empire are just that. Myths. Little substance, and each grandifies their particular race to some extent.
"The truth is this.
"There was an ancient First Race, and we know that this First Race developed on a small round world in an ancient universe. That this race gradually learned to make sense of the world around them, codified the laws they could observe, and then did make a technology which grew increasingly more complex and powerful. They went from striking stones together to make fire, to towers of gleaming metal and glass, and eventually to plumb the secrets of star travel and the remaking of life.
"This ancient First Race, as you are all aware, are known as 'humans' or simply 'man'. There are a few of them around, mainly washed up from somewhere within the timestream, but they are neither all powerful or all knowing. Surprisingly frail, in fact.
"From their birth on that long vanished world, to the time when they fled across dimensions to escape an enemy they had created, this is the time known as the First Age Of Man.
"When Man and the Sons Of Man fled in a vast fleet of ships, some of those vessels were lost. The ship of the Delphins was one such, and there were many others. Nine were linked by fate, hence the term 'the Ninefold Worlds'.
"The Second Age Of Man was born of the fires of the First. Upon trying to come up with a defense against their enemy, the group that became the Elves released Magic. Nine Beings from Beyond became the gods and began containing the Chaos, for none could live with the pure Magic eroding their beings. The Age Of Sorcerer-Kings was a time when the pure Magic was still so strong that only by binding it could normal people hope to live. Magic touched and changed most things of the World, and so Rules were imposed upon it by the Sorcerer-Kings.
"The Magic had become mere magic, there were few Sorcerer-Kings left, and then the Goblinkin arrived - having pursued the refugees from the First Age, only to appear a thousand years past their mark. The Goblinkin used their ancient weapons, and were met by magic and artifacts of fell power. The last Sorcerer-King died but took the great ships of the Goblinkin with him as he persished.
"Then the Elves took the stage and began their war against anyone who did not bend their knee to them. That many elven lives had been lost while other races did little was enough to spark the flames. An Elven Empire, for only elves lived long enough or were were wise enough to govern others, was forged.
"Thus the Third Age Of Man began and ended with a war.
"When the Elves were revealed as dupes of the Tyrants - the ancient enemy also known as the High Imperials, the war had taken its toll. Most were too depleted to deal with this new threat, and the Tyrants ruled over all for the length of the Fourth Age.
"Finally the nation of the Hegemony formed and began a revolution that overthrew the Tyrants. Thus began the Fifth Age - a rebuilding that saw the Hegemony flourish and then slowly retreat from power, turning its back on the rest of the world. The Fifth Age ended in another war, the first Godswar.
"The gods of Aramar were reborn in mortal form to accomplish things that a god could not, and to come to renew their ties with the races of the mortal world. Each grew to adulthood and power, and then the one known as Surtag The Giant sought to slay the other reborn - that their powers would lay quiescent for a time while he sought to destroy all who did not follow his path. The battle was short and ended with a new Age - and the winner determined the path of the Age. That winner, as we now know, had been Hevrig the Binder.
"The Sixth Age of Man was an age of discovery and rediscovery, the age of Spelljammers and Dimension Hoppers. The truth of the Ninefold Worlds was first suspected then. That Age, as the Age before, ended in a Godswar. This time the Godswar was disrupted by the mage Ankoku - who sought to become a god himself. More astonishing, he succeeded - however there were... complications.
"The Sundering shattered the world. The world was remade but the gods have largely been quiet since then.
"The world of Aramar is huge and largely unexplored now. We have yet to determine where everything is, if all the parts survived. Since the Sixth Age, for example, all trace of the Hegemony has been lost."